Open wireless architecture (OWA) unified airborne and terrestrial communications architecture

Abstract

This invention relates to an Open Wireless Architecture (OWA) unified airborne and terrestrial communications architecture providing optimal high-speed connections with open radio transmission technologies (RTTs) between aircrafts and ground cells, and between different aircrafts in Ad-Hoc or Mesh network group, to construct the multi-dimensional unified information delivery platform across the airborne networks and the terrestrial networks wherein the same OWA mobile device or OWA mobile computer can be used seamlessly and continuously both in the aircrafts and on the ground.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14 / 990,277, filed Jan. 7, 2016, and entitled “OPEN WIRELESS ARCHITECTURE (OWA) UNIFIED AIRBORNE AND TERRESTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS ARCHITECTURE”, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Field of the Invention[0003]This invention relates to an Open Wireless Architecture (OWA) Unified Airborne and Terrestrial Communications architecture with open radio transmission technologies between aircrafts and ground cells, and between different aircrafts in ad-hoc or mesh network manner to build the unified broadband information delivery platform across the airborne networks and the terrestrial networks wherein the same OWA mobile device can be used seamlessly and continuously both in the aircrafts and on the ground.[0004]Description of the Related Art[0005]Commercial wireless mobile communications including terrestrial cellular network...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0044]In order to solve the problems existed in the conventional airborne communications, and meet the goals as discussed, improvement of the current wireless transmission and system architecture is the only and final solution. The Open Wireless Architecture (OWA) approach has been proposed to achieve the above goals and shifted the wireless mobile technology from a transmission-specific radio system to an interface-based open system platform for the complete openness and simplicity of the future unified wireless terrestrial and airborne communications.

[0085]i) Because of the OWA technology, either link in the mesh network or the ATG can utilize different RTTs (radio transmission technologies) to optimize the bandwidth performance while increasing the system and transmission efficiency. For example, in the ATG connection, the uplink (from ground to aircraft) can utilize optical laser or ultra-fast BWA with very high transmitting power on ground. But downlink (from aircraft to ground) can use cost-effective and energy-efficient cellular mobile RTTs such as long-distance TDMA, CDMA or OFDMA technology, as set forth above, but not limited to. The OWA technology also enables aircrafts to be able to dynamically switch different RTTs within mesh networks and within connections among multiple ATG connections.

Problems solved by technology

However, their architecture remains very closed, especially the airborne network technology is still in the earlier dates.

The current airborne communications have the following fatal problems:a. Transmission speed is too slow, and both transmission and system architectures are too closed;b. Too much relying on Satellite communications which are too expensive to be used in commercial environment;c. It is too difficult to ensure the radio transmission safety issue for the traditional wireless device used in commercial aircrafts, and therefore all such wireless devices must be turned off in the aircrafts;d.

Some available non-satellite based transmission technology for airborne network is very much limited to certain specific wireless standard only without the capability to support the overall requirements of the future airborne communications;e.

There is no solution available for seamless connections across the terrestrial networks and the airborne networks.

However, satellite equipments both in aircrafts and skies are very expensive, and because of power issues in the satellite, the transmission speed is must limited which is not a cost-effective solution in providing broadband connections for users in the aircrafts.

In addition, most commercial mobile devices do not support satellite communications except a purely broadcasting satellite receiver.

Satellite network has problems in cost issue and transmission speed issue, and therefore is not appropriate for commercial applications.2. Land-based VHF / UHF Airborne Networks

However, VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (Ultra high frequency) are mostly used for terrestrial broadcasting (one way) services and there are not enough two-way transceivers on the ground.

In addition, the transmission speed over VHF / UHF channel is quite limited, and not appropriate for broadband high-speed connections between the aircrafts and the ground.3. Land-based CDMA-EVDO Airborne Network

Though the CDMA EVDO (Evolution-Data Optimized) standard has many cellular towers in some regions, this solution has the following two fatal problems:a. The transmission is limited to EVDO-CDMA only without being able to connect to other wireless standards in different regions or countries without EVDO;b. Because CDMA has many problems in maintaining the high network capacity and high-speed transmission, etc in the airborne communication environment, this single solution is hard to compliment between the network capacity and the transmission speed in a commercial environment.

Furthermore, in the above solution, there is no transmission safety control scheme in the airborne in-flight connections, and so various wireless equipments supporting WiMax and PCS, etc are used in the aircrafts which generate a serious radio interference problems with the airborne / aviation navigation and airborne / aviation communication systems.

Such separate radio transmission technologies in the closed architecture without an efficient control will not work at all in the commercial airborne networks.4. SDR Based Airborne Network

Though it has been used already by the military applications, it has never been used successfully in commercial environment, because:a. SDR is primarily a radio in which the preset operating parameters including inter alia frequency range, modulation type, and / or output power limitations can be reset or altered by software in order to support different radio frequency bands and / or standards.

In other words, SDR consumes much more power and spectrum in exchange of the system flexibility.

From the business point of view, SDR is not a cost-effective solution in wireless communications;b. Furthermore, SDR uses broadband transceiver to support multiple wireless standards which is very expensive in the commercial environment;c. The SDR device will lose synchronization across the airborne network and the terrestrial network because of its closed architecture in both systems and transmissions.

Therefore, this solution is also not appropriate for the commercial airborne networks.

SDR uses broadband transceiver to support multiple wireless standards which is very expensive in the commercial environment.

Images